Shortlisted in the top 10 for best thrifty blog & best crafting blog

Shortlisted in the top 7 best craft blog category

Sunday, 14 August 2011

I would have never thought of making ketchup had it not been for a visit to the popular Huffkins restaurant at Stow on the Wold. They did a fantastic Full English brekkie, the best I've had so far. They also served some of their own tomato ketchup made with a 'secret' recipe. To that I thought-thank you very much, I'll make my own non-secret version and I'll make it just as good. Ha! Anyway, August has provided us with a plentiful tomato harvest and so I decided to give the ketchup a go. As usual I scoured the Internet for ideas and then created my own version of tomato ketchup.

I fried 5 shallots along with two tablespoons olive oil, a teaspoon of chili powder, a spoonful each of ginger and garlic pastes, a tablespoon of cumin and coriander and a pinch of salt. To this I added 500g fresh cherry tomatoes and 1 tin of canned tomatoes. I brought this mixture to a boil for about 10-15 mins stirring often and mashing the tomatoes. I let this mixture cool, pureed it in the blender and then sieved it to release a thick 'bit-free sauce'. I brought this sauce back to boil, added 100 ml balsamic vinegar and 100g brown sugar , reduce the heat to simmer and stirred continuously until the sauce had thickened to ketchup consistence. I let the ketchup cool completely and then poured it into a sterilised bottle. I think this sauce will keep at least for a month in a fridge although I can't be sure. I'll keep you posted on how long mine lasts.